Dresdan santa rosa

Game Date: 07-30-2010
Start: We start off at Davenport’s books. Neil (Michael’s char) is out of town. He has been called off on an important case. It is currently 11am.

We start throwing out ideas about what we are going to do and Shaylee simply gets up to leave. She is worried about her parents. Lothario is concerned about letting her go alone so he goes with her. Michael throws her the keys to his Jag and tells them to be back by 4. The rest of us look incredulous at each other.

We are talking about what we are going to do and Ty gets a call and then seems very upset and runs out the door, transforming as he is running. We got the idea that the pack was in danger so we decide to head to the University (Sonoma State).

Nieman wants to go to his place to get some ingredients to help with this confrontation. Roxanne was going to go with Nieman but she get this overwhelming feeling that we MUST give the werewolf support or he, and all his pack members will be killed. I tell Michael and Neiman about it. Michael picks up Ty’s cloths and finds his keys so we have his car to get to the University to give Ty some backup. Neiman continues to go to his place because he really needs these ingredients. So Michael and Roxanne hop in Ty’s car and we try to find Ty on the way, since he is going to get there in a couple of hours on foot even in wolf form!

Michael performs a tracking spell and so Roxanne drives Ty’s car while Michael is pointing the way to go. We pull up along side Ty and open the door so he can hop in and we continue to the university. Michael had grabbed Ty’s clothes on the way out the door so Ty can turn back into a human and have clothes to wear when he turns back.

Ty is trying to call some of his pack at Michael’s suggestion. Lily picks up and Ty tells her to head to the campus because the pack is being attacked by Corbin. The campus is mostly deserted.

When we are about five minutes from the campus, Michael casts an evocation. Michael wants to be let off about five minutes from the campus. He wants to fly up and see if he can get an overview of what is going on. Roxanne lets him off and she continues on in Ty’s car with him in the back. Michael says he will send off a flare when he finds the location of the fray, and if he can’t find anything, we all meet at the dorms where Ty lives. Roxanne nods and drives off.

Ty lives in the older section of the dorms, in the back by the creek.

Michael notices there are a bunch of downed security guards in the area. People in uniforms are sprawled around on the ground. There is a pack of three animals (presumably wolves). One of them is dragging one of the others. One is darting in and out among the pillars, harassing a figure that is walking toward the pair. There is a human that looks like he is yelling.

Michael starts floating down toward the disturbance. Roxanne drives as close as she can get, then she stops and gets out of the car. Ty transforms again into his wolf form and heads toward the noise with Roxanne running behind him.

Michael throws a lightening spell at Corbin. Roxanne and Ty see the flash of the spell and so we can pinpoint the location of Corbin and the pack. Corbin shakes off the bolt and turns around and makes a quick little slashing gesture with his hand. Michael feels a cool breeze behind him. He is able to resist the effects, but he feels frost forming on his face. The plants behind Michael are all frozen. He sidesteps and the wolf that was coming at Corbin flies by him and lands near Michael’s feet.

As Ty and Roxanne come on the scene, they notice Michael and the pack members and Corbin. Michael creates a vortex of air, attempting to spin Corbin to immobilize him so he can’t move. He is trying to make Corbin disoriented and nauseous. Michael is successful in the attack. Corbin is definitely disoriented.

Lothario moves up and whacks Corbin in the head. He can move supernaturally fast. He knocks Corbin down onto one knee. Ty, wolf form, runs up to Corbin and attacks him.

Neiman arrives and uses his gun to attack Corbin. Michael attempts to channel Earth and tries to draw up mud from the ground to engulf Corbin and dry it in place, holding him immobile. The spell works and Corbin is encased in mud and immobilized, although Michael starts giggling uncontrolablly. The rest of us have no idea what Michael finds so funny and figure it is one of his usual eccentric oddities. Roxanne calls to the spirits to come and help hold Corbin to extend the duration of his immobilization.

Corbin counter-attacks and the ground opens up under the still laughing Michael and then closes after he falls into the hole. Michael is trapped without air. Lothario circles around Corbin and attacks. He manages to evade Lothario’s attack but it looks like it took him a lot of effort to do so.

Michael tries to escape his predicament, whilst giggling insanely. He fails. Roxanne attempts to get spirits to scare Corbin. She pulls off the spell but he shakes it off, effortlessly. Her attack has no effect. He just looks at the spirit and talks to it.

Corbin says “inter” and the earth swallows him up and he disappears. He is still hampered by my spirits but he has some control. Lothario hangs out close to where Corbin disappeared into the ground.

Corbin tunnels underground and we lose him. He gets away. In the distance we hear sirens coming this way. So we head to Ty’s dorm room to hide until the cops leave. Michael still has the giggles. He giggles insanely as he pulls a vial out of his pocket and drinks it and the giggling is gone instantly.

After we hide out until about 2pm. At this time, we get evacuated from the area. We head back to Michael’s. We figure out that Corbin was going West, presumably back to his home.

We are discussing where Corbin’s next murder might be. Neiman and Michael are looking at a map and he seems to be drawing a pentacle on the town- using churches. There are two churches that might be his next target. In one church a metal crucifix was taken, in another the silverware, in another the chalice. Michael now knows what spell he is doing. There is a metal mask- called the blasphemer’s veil- it gives the wearer power. He is trying to create this mask. Michael’s sources do not agree on what the power would be. We have one month before he ritually kills again.

After a couple of days of preparing. Nieman and Michael do a drive by and look at Corbin’s wards- to see if we can dismantle them. Michael and Nieman are able to take down his wards- and we go in to look around. Corbin has left this place and it is no longer his home. It is obvious that he has been melting down the metal from the churches. What he has of the mask so far is missing. We find smelting equipment and tools. He did a very good job of not leaving any personal effects of his behind as he knows we can use it against him.

There is some furniture. And there is a pile of ash so we know he burned stuff. Upstairs on the wall opposite the stairs, Shaylee finds a japanese painting of the chinese zodiac. We notice that the rooster is prominent and at the top of the rotation.

Shaylee tells us what they found out at her parents house- they found a scratch paper that said “new rooster night” not sure if it is “Knew” or “new” and “night” or Knight.

Next session will take place one week after the events of this game session.
End of Steeple Chase.
We each receive a significant milestone- we get one additional skill rank.

Game Date: May 31
Neiman and Roxanne are still hanging at Michael’s. Ty and Zak, another member of his pack, found out where the tattooed man lived and went to his house, and he was not happy about that. He used magic and Ty assumed he was a wizard.

Ty calls Michael and Michael asked if he knows whether this guy is a wizard or a sorcerer. When Ty and Zak were snooping around he found three small rabbits with their ears tied together. It seemed like a ritual of some sort to Ty.

The rabbits point to something thaumaturgical and it seems to be some sort of evocation-type thing. The discovery indicates that he is not a focused practitioner.

Michael finds a book, Archive of Magical People in Northern California, which is one of the Schultz journals. He is looking for someone that fits the description of Shaylee’s stalker. He finds something, but he decides to mark the book to read it to all of us when we are together again. Michael is more than a little distracted most of the time.

Neiman and Roxanne are hanging out at Michael’s. Michael disappears, muttering to us to help ourselves to the kitchen. Roxanne makes some spaghetti. They eat and take a quick nap on the couch.

Shaylee calls her folks and her Mom answers and tells her that her Dad is not there that he had a business trip. However Shaylee gets the impression that her mother is not being completely honest. She presses but her mother continues to be evasive.

Lothario runs out to get dinner. And Neil is doing some research on the tattoos that were on the arm of Shaylee’s stalker.

I get a call from Neil, he says he has some information and wants to meet with me but not with any of my friends. So I tell him that I can meet him the next morning at the Starbucks up the street. He agrees.

Michael comes in as I was talking on the phone with Neil. I tell Michael that he left the stove on and I made spaghetti, and invite him to have some. He is serves himself some and suddenly drops his plate and says “If I were Obi Wan Kenobi I would feel a disturbance in the force.” He then very nonchalantly asks me if I would be a dear and clean up the mess he just made. Neiman and I clean up and then decide to head to my place for the night.

Michael does some more research and tries to find the Book of Countless Sorrows. No one who reads the book remains sane. Michael tries to remember if he has ever read it and forgotten that he had read it. He can’t remember. There is a spell in the Book of Countless Sorrows that can remove all evil from the world. This is a rumor, but he finds several references to this rumor. No one who has ever looked at the book has ever talked about it.

Shaylee is doing some research as well- she runs into some bit of information: she finds the website that talks about a secret society of elders that rule the world. They have a group of elders that control territories- and she noticed that there are some territories where they no longer hold control- and have not for about 100 yrs. There are a lot of theories about why this is, but she can’t find any real proof to support any of the theories. Northern California is one of the uncontrolled territories.

It is getting late now- Neil turns on his police scanner and listens for anything interesting.

Michael comes back downstairs and notices that Neiman and I are gone and the place is cleaned up. He looks for Neil’s card and calls him and says that someone has been murdered tonight in a gruesome manner. He says he was not really sure about this but thought he felt a disturbance in the force and thought it meant something. He says that he dropped his spaghetti and now has come downstairs and the people that were there are gone and they have cleaned up the mess. He says “Just thought you should know” and hangs up.

Neil calls in to the station and says he may have a lead that there might be a murder that may have been committed. He says the lead came from a guy that might be a crackpot- but he thinks that it is worth looking into.

It is morning now.

Neiman and I head to Starbucks to meet with Neil. He tells us that the second victim, the choir director, was named Freestone. He was a street kid and refused to go home after testifying at his father’s trial. He testified that his dad actually had killed his mom. He has a known associate since he has been on the street: Corbin Brist. Neil has been unable to track down anything about Corbin. There is a guy named Dwight Bredis and he has been missing for about 5 years and his art style was similar to the deaths. He used to live in Cotati. Freestone used to be a criminal before he “found God”.

Neil also tells Roxanne that he got a call from Michael and tells us about the odd message. He tells me that Freestone had two Facebook accounts. One was under his real name and one was under an alias. The alias is the name that people knew him by when he was on the street. Neither Neiman or Roxanne can check out the Facebook pages as they both have problems with computers. So Neil will have to do that research.

After having coffee with Neil, Neiman and Roxanne decide to go back to Davenports. Neil decides to go with us despite his feelings about the crazy wizard. When we arrive, Michael answers the door and Neil realizes that Michael is faking the British accent.

After Neil fills in Michael on what he knows, then there is a knock on the door. It is Shaylee (Neil’s friend’s daughter) and Ty, who Neil doesn’t know.

Michael tells everyone that he has some information for us. Then there is another knock on the door. It is Lothario. When Neil mentions the name Corbin Brist- Michael realizes he has read about him. At age 13 Corbin’s house burned down, and he lost all his family. He was placed with an uncle but he ran away shortly after the placement. Michael mutters something about his uncle and how lucky he was.

There is some speculation in Shultz’s notes that Corbin may have been responsible for the fire. Corbin first came on Shultz’s radar after a hit and run accident. The car accident involved a Marcus Vanderwell and the only survivor of the accident was Margaret Vadnerwell, who happens to be the first murder victim. Shultz had conducted an interview with her trying to track down Corbin. One thing she mentions is that after the accident, right immediately after the accident, someone leaned in the window and laughed at her, as her husband was dying next to her. She is sure that it is the same person that caused the accident. Then later there is an incident that gets Schultz’s attention, he sees a man that has a tattoo that he knows for a fact is connected to the Book of Countless Sorrows. It was about 4 ½ yrs ago that Shultz had had the interaction with Corbin. Shultz is certain that Corbin is a sorcerer.

The information about Corbin was near the end of Shultz’s journals. And the description that Michael has of Corbin matches the description that Ty has of Shaylee’s stalker.

Game Date: May 28th
Game setting: There is front page article about a murder that has occurred at the Church of the Roses, a Presbyterian Church. The body was hung above the pulpit. This is breaking news and the victim has not been identified yet. This murder is similar to the first killing that we heard about.

Neil O’Connor is involved in the case. He has just moved here from Chicago and was hired to investigate the first murder.

After their investigations last night, Neiman and Roxanne decide to crash at her place for a while. When they wake up, they head to Starbuck’s for coffee. They head to the one at the Barnes & Noble that Neiman works at. After they get coffee they are planning to go head to the Church that was the site of the latest murder to see if Roxanne can find any spirits to talk to that might have insight into the murders.

Neil happens to be at the Starbucks and he walks up to me and introduces himself to Roxanne and she remembers him as a person she worked with in the past.

Neil has been hired to investigate the murder at Stony Point Church, which is exactly the same case that Neiman and Roxanne are working on.

Back at Davenport Books, Michael decides to summon a demon to get information. He sets up his ritual and summons Thalastius by name. A serpent-like being forms and uncoils solidifying from mists into a solid form. The demon is covered in spines, similar to a sea urchin. There are about 10 tentacle-like fingers on each hand. The legs merge together and then un-merge morphing into one, two and then several and back again. The demon swirls about the circle in the container, testing the confines of the circle. He bounces back when he hits the edge of the circle. He appears to be annoyed at the confines of the circle.

Meanwhile Neiman, Neil and Roxanne head over to the Church of the Roses to investigate the latest murder. Roxanne is hoping to find spirits there that might want to talk to her. Roxanne and Neiman hop into Neiman’s car and head over and Neil takes his own car and meets them at the Church.

When they arrive, Roxanne looks at the church, sweeping over the property, looking for spirits who might want to talk to her. She is not doing anything special but is just open to communicating with any spirits that might want to talk. The ghost of a little girl comes up to her. She is wearing old fashioned clothes probably about the mid 1800s. The girl comes up to Roxanne but can’t speak. She motions that she wishes to communicate with Roxanne.
She seems very upset and is crying. She motions to her throat and waves her arms around.
“singing?”, Roxanne inquires.
She nods.
“arm?”
“tattoos on arm?”
she nods.
“Man with tattooed arm killed a singer?”
she nods.
She motions again.
Neiman and Neil listen to this one-sided game of charades, trying to figure it out.

Roxanne gets the idea that nothing is left of the singer, not even his spirit. The man that killed the singer killed him completely destroying his spirit in the process. There is no way Roxanne can contact the spirit of the murder victim.
The girl ghost motions again.
“You have seen a lot?”
she nods.
“But this man with the tattoos scares you?”
She nods and trembles.
“Thank you. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“You have been waiting here?”
“for your mother?”
Roxanne tells the girl spirit that she will see if she can find her mother and tell her mother that she is here at the church waiting for her. She indicates she wants a hug and Roxanne hugs her and tell her it will be ok.

The choir singer was murdered on Sunday, May 30, 2010. The first victim died on May 11.

Roxanne mentions that the stalker that Shayle has sounds like this guy that is killing people. Neil asks Roxanne where Shaylee works and she tells him. He quickly excuses himself and rushes off.

Neiman and Roxanne then head to Michael’s to let him know what they have found out and also see if he has further information. He tells us that the killer is an Outsider. We hang out for a bit and then Shaylee shows up and tells us that this police investigator (Neil) had shown up at her work, and was waiting for her when she got off. He had told her about the tattooed man that had been stalking her and feels that she might be in grave danger.

Michael tries to find some information but unfortunately, doesn’t have much information on Outsiders.

Neil has been watching this area for a while and suspects that the Michael is the person that came into possession of the Shultz library.

Neil has access to police databases and will check those out to see if he can find any further information on the tattooed man. Michael believes that the last murder happened about 11:30 and he knows that a ritual occurred at the same time. At the termination of the ritual he believes the body was killed.

The first victim was female the second was male. The ritual murders also take place in different churches and different denominations.
Michael and Neil both realize that the first of the killings, the one on the 11th, was the night of the new moon and that the second, on the 27th, was the night of the full moon.

Neil finds a photo of a dead guy from the morgue that has a tattoo extending down the arm in a similar fashion to our suspect. Neil requests all the morgue pictures of this particular man.

Michael suddenly jumps up and says that there is something he must do, he rushes out, throws us a key and tells us to lock up when we leave. We hear the bells ring as he runs out the door, and we hear his Jag start up and he drives off, obviously in a hurry. Lothario runs after Michael out the door.

Shaylee is working at Outer Planes and a guy comes in. This guy has been coming around the store a lot and seems to be very interested in Shaylee. He makes a point of talking to her every time he comes in. He is kinda cute and estimates his age to be a little older than her own, around his late 30’s.

This evening he is waiting out front for her and has a rose. He asks her out to dinner that night. Shaylee refuses, saying she has plans. After he leaves she heads to the movie theatre- just after she gets her ticket, he gets in line. She notices him. She notices that he is still carrying the stem of the rose, not the flower- just the stem.

He heads into one of the theaters but she can’t tell which one he went into. She decides to just leave. He is really creeping her out. She gets on her scooter and goes home.

Shaylee calls her friend, Ty and tells him about the guy and that he is creeping her out. Ty invites her to come over and hang a bit. They watch a movie at his dorm room. During the movie there are a couple of times that Ty notices an acrid scent coming from outside.

Ty asks Shaylee if she smells anything. Ty is noticing the scent about every 15 minutes now and looks up to see if he can figure out where the scent is coming from. He notices a tall powerfully built man outside his room and realizes the smell is coming from him. The man is a bit distracted and has a full sleeve tattoo on one arm. The work is very good and much better than an average college student could afford.

Ty tells Shaylee about the guy but Shaylee blows him off, but Ty is really bothered by the scent. There is something not natural about the smell. There is some element of something else- something supernatural. Ty gets up and opens the door and gives a low growl and the guy notices him. Ty tells the man to go away (Presence attack) The guy just looks at him and says “What if I don’t want to?” He has no intention of going anywhere. Ty notices that he is holding the stem of a rose, just the stem with no rose. The clock strikes 10 at this moment.

The guy gives a snort and turns and walks away. As Ty closes the door- there is a thudding sound against the door- and something comes through the door. Shaylee notices a headless stem of a rose that is embedded in the door.

Meanwhile, back in the graveyard…
Neiman and Roxanne are in the graveyard. Roxanne runs over to Michael to see if he is ok. After a minute or so he starts to come around. His eyes are twitching almost as if he was having a minor seizure. After a few moments he wakes up and and says “Something dark and terrible has happened.”

“There has been some dark ritual in town that has been cast,” Michael continues.

We all hear sirens in the distance. The ambulance that we called for the poor girl that had been attacked by the ghoul is arriving. Neiman and Roxanne leave the scene to go check out the tombstone that we had originally come here to. So we head down to the southern part of the graveyard. Michael and Lothario stay and wait for the police to get there.

Michael covers for Lothario and tells the police that he was there in the graveyard with him and so was there legitimately. After about 15 or 20 minutes the police tell Lothario and Michael, “Thanks for your time. You can go now.” The police completely neglect to ask Michael what HE was doing in the graveyard. They just seem to assume he was there for a legitimate reason.

Roxanne can’t talk to any of the spirits. All the energy in the graveyard has been disrupted by the occurrences this evening and all the spirits are upset and she cannot see the normal energy for the graveyard and thus, can’t tell what is abnormal at this point. So she can’t really finish the job she and Neiman came here to do.

Michael tells Lothario that something bad has happened and that someone has been killed about the same time that the ghoul attacked.

Neiman and Roxanne decide to head back to her place and chill a bit. We get in her car and drive off. On the way to Roxanne’s, they notice that Michael and Lothario have pulled over. Recognizing them from the incident in the graveyard they pull over to talk to them.

Lothario is obviously upset and Michael tells us that we have to excuse him, as he just discovered that he is a white court vampire. He apparently had killed his girlfriend and Roxanne quickly looks to see if I see her ghost around him. She doesn’t.

Lothario takes a moment to process his newly found self discovery but then recovers very quickly. Michael invites us over to his store for a drink. All agree that it sounds good after the excitement of the evening and they all head over to Michael’s place.

After they arrive, Michael’s phone rings. It is Shaylee and Ty who are calling to ask him if he knows anything about this strange guy. Michael invites them over to his shop to discuss it further. They tell him about the strange smell and describe the guy. Michael is sure he has references to this in his library.

While waiting for Shaylee and Ty to arrive, Michael does some research on the man that they saw. He can’t find out much information, but he knows this guy is very dangerous.

They are all at the book shop and are drinking and chatting about events that transpired that day.

They hear that there was a disturbance near Montgomery Village and Shaylee decides to summon a fairy friend to find out more information.

A tiny ball of purple-blue light come through the window and land on Shaylee’s hand, then settles down in front of her. The pixie’s name is Periwinkle. Shaylee asks it if it knows what the police were up to near Montgomery Village. It is about two blocks up from where they currently are. Shaylee struggles to keep the pixie’s attention, as it is far more interested in the strawberry ice cream that Michael has than in paying attention to what Shaylee is asking.

The pixie says that someone’s heart has been cut out. It says that someone has had their heart cut out and their throat cut. This happened in a church. Ty mentions the scent he had caught at his dorm, saying that the smell is like sulpher and ash with a hint of burnt toast. The pixie says yes that scent was at the scene of the crime.

Going through many books, the group finds multiple rituals involving hearts being ripped from the body. Michael is able to weed out quite a few of them as not relevant to the particulars of the cases that we know about. In all the books he has access to, there is nothing about outsider related magic involving consecrated ground, ripping out the heart and hanging the corpse. If this is a ritual, it is something very specific.

Lothario finds an article about a another murder, in a church nearby at Stony Point Christian Fellowship. He thinks that the murder was similar to the one we just heard about.

A night in the gave yard

Roxanne has come at the behest of the Cemetery association to investigate a spat of vandalism that they have begun to believe has supernatural origins. She has brought along a friend of hers, a sorcerer named Niemen. Lothario Leoni is in the graveyard against his will, a friends of a friends girl friend thought would be fun to hang out there at night. Micheal is there for an investigation of his own, he has tracked down references in the Schultz library to a mystery over 100 years old connected with the death of three wardens.
There investigations and revelries were soon to be interrupted however when a couple of lothario’s friends wander off in to a stand of trees for some alone time. Soon screams are heard and the visitors to the graveyard go to investigate. they find that the young couple has been attacked by a ghoul. A brief fight ensues but is quickly ended by Neiman when he unleashes a powerful blast of fire leaving nothing but ash of the ghoul.

Micheal decided to take a closer look at the people who were in the fight with him and opens his sight. After gathering information about these strangers and some not so strangers he is distracted by the dark energy of a large ritual being cast somewhere in down town Santa Rosa. Some force in the magic becomes aware of him as well before he passes out from the sight.